FormFactor to acquire Microprobe, creates top probe card supplier

September 4, 2012 — Wafer probe card maker FormFactor, Livermore, CA, has agreed to acquire fellow probe card supplier MicroProbe, San Jose, CA, for $100M in cash and $16.8M in stock. The deal, subject to customary conditions, is expected to close by the end of this year.

The combined entity will, according to the companies, be the industry-leading supplier of advanced system-on-chip (SOC) probe cards, with technology leadership in both memory and SOC probe card markets. The entity also will see "improved and immediately accretive financial performance" by the beginning of 2013, they claim.

FormFactor was unseated as the longtime top nonmemory probe card supplier in VLSI Research rankings earlier this year; it now ranks second with $162M in 2011 sales, with Microprobe listed fourth. Combined they would rival Japan’s Micronics ($242M) which assumed the top spot. VLSI projects probe card sales will be flat in 2012 but overall growing steadily over the next five years, reaching $1.5B by 2016.

"This merger is a transformational event for FormFactor," stated FormFactor CEO Tom St. Dennis. "The combined company will have the technology and resources to address semiconductor test requirements across the entire advanced probe card space."

"Together, we are in position to focus on delivering leading wafer probe solutions to meet the needs and roadmaps of logic and memory semiconductor device manufacturers," added FormFactor chairman Carl Everett.

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